There’s many things that Peggy Friday likes about Kosciusko County, but what drew her here to become the new CEO for Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation was the people.
“I think I’m most impressed with the people. I’ve said this before. That’s really what drew me here. My plan was to retire and just kind of take it easy, but I knew wherever I landed, I wanted to be involved in the community and make a difference. That’s the fun part of economic development. It’s obviously a process, and it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of relationship building, and so one of the things I do enjoy is putting people together - the networking piece, trying to make people successful,” she said Wednesday in an interview before a meet-and-greet at the KEDCO building downtown Warsaw.
Friday grew up right outside of Pittsburgh. After graduating high school, she went to the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, majoring in broadcasting and communications. She then was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years.
“Best job I’ve had, by far. I have three wonderful kids, they’re all grown,” she said.
When her kids were old enough, she volunteered in some political campaigns and was the clerk for the township where she lived. That led to a full-time position with one-term U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. When Fitzgerald left the Senate, Friday’s goal was to go back home and raise her kids.
“Well, God had other ideas for me and I went to the city of Rochelle, Ill., a town of about 10,000 people just west of Chicago. A very progressive community. We had a number of enterprises. The city owned its own short-line railroad. We had an airport. We provided high-speed internet fiber. We had our own utility that provided electricity, water, sanitary sewer, those sort of things,” she said.
Friday worked in economic development, in industrial development, as well as being in charge of commercial/retail development for the city of Rochelle. Through an arrangement with the city, she also went over to the chamber of commerce, which was failing at that time, and closed it, restarted it and restructured it. The chamber was made more of a for-profit organization, and Friday was there for 10 years while also a working on commercial and retail development.
When the new city manager came in, he asked her to come back to the city to work on economic development, and she did, serving as the industrial development manager.
In total, she was with the city of Rochelle just shy of 20 years.
“So my background is strong in economic development, infrastructure development especially. And so, I look forward to being able to bring that knowledge to Kosciusko County, and especially the smaller communities that really - if they have the desire to grow - will obviously need some help with the infrastructure that makes that possible,” Friday said.
When she was researching Kosciusko County, she reiterated that the number one thing she liked was the people.
“Everyone I met had the same heart for serving the community,” she said. “I come from the state of Illinois where it’s just a little different there. The people here just seem to want to do the best they can. Many of them grew up here. I’m impressed with people who grow up in a community and then either come back and invest or stay. And so I thought, ‘This has gotta be a pretty special place.’”
The natural resources like the lakes also are a draw.
“And, you have elected officials who care about their districts. Who, obviously, bring back money and projects and ideas and enthusiasm to their district. It just felt right. When you’re led somewhere, there may not be a rhyme or reason why, but you just know,” she said.
Wednesday was Day 13 for her on the job as the KEDCO CEO. She’s been getting to know KEDCO’s partners and people, spending time in the community and getting a real feel for the county.
Friday stated she’s also very impressed with KEDCO’s staff.
“They do a phenomenal job,” she said.
Counting herself, KEDCO has a staff of six. Some of the prior staff had been working on contract and those contracts have expired.
“During this time of looking at what is the best use of our talent - Are we going to go in a different direction? Can we use staff from within? - That’s something that we need to take a look at. But the staff is amazing. Everyone works incredibly hard in their role and even then above and beyond. So, I’m just very fortunate that we have that,” Friday stated.
Looking forward, Friday said there’s a lot of priorities for her to tackle.
“I think the top priority is obviously building relationships with organizations, business owners, industries, commercial retail. Building trust. Listening is an important part of what I’m doing now. I’m meeting with a number of folks, but I really go there to listen,” she said. “... But I’m just getting to know people, and finding out what their relationship in the past has been with KEDCO and how we can continue.”
Part of her plan is to meet with all the communities within Kosciusko.
“As I’ve said before, all of the communities in the county are important to us. I have on my calendar, or have met with, each mayor, clerk, town administrator. We’ve met with, for sure, in person, Silver Lake. We’ve met with Syracuse. I’ve spoken with the mayor of Warsaw. The others are all on my calendar,” she said. “My goal is to meet them and then quarterly - or however it works out - to attend those board meetings just to stay connected.”
She can’t be at all of them, as many of the city councils and town boards meet on the same night, but she’ll rotate to different meetings to “make sure we have a visible presence, and then, again, bring those communities, of all sizes, to the table, and then find out what their needs are and see how we can collectively meet those,” she said, adding that her heart is in rural America.
Along with bringing new industry to the county, Friday said business retention is also very important to her work.
“You don’t want to start to lose the companies,” she said. “Competition in economic development is fierce. When I was in Illinois, we were competing with Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan because of the business climate. I think the business climate here is more welcoming, but I think it’s really important to make sure that the businesses that are here - we want them to expand. When an expansion opportunity comes, we don’t want them to even consider leaving.”
She also understands that there is interest here in reinforcing the agricultural industry.
“Of course, that’s our other gem, and how can KEDCO, moving forward, help the agricultural arena,” Friday said. “We hosted a meeting yesterday with some folks from Purdue and the county on food insecurity, and how their agenda is to provide nutrition and more food opportunities.”
For more about KEDCO, visit the website at www.kosciuskoedc.com.